Jean-Luc Picard left a comment on one of my previous posts saying that wet nurses were making a come back. I just googled this out of curiosity and it really is happening. Well, not a major 'come back' but it is happening. I won't summarise the TIME magazine article because it is already written so concisely so check it out here.
The crux is that people are becoming more aware of all the benefits a breastfed baby receives but at the same time, women are joining and staying in the work force more than ever so.....this is the way to have their cake and eat it too.
I think I might be OK to feed another baby if it were to help a family member out. I'd really have second thoughts about doing it for other people. And, I don't think I would want to have Aaron attached to anybody else's body. The relationship that develops between the baby and breastfeeder is incredibly intense and I guess I'm just too selfish to share him with somebody else. There's no way that I could convince myself that the other person was just a vending machine.
9 comments:
I don't think I would like to have a "milk-maid" either
I think you hit the nail on the head with your comment about having one's cake and eating it, too. I can't imagine a strange woman breastfeeding my child unless it was because my wife was ill or had a similar problem. You're correct about the relationship between baby and breastfeeder...I see it with my daughter and her baby very clearly.
i'll only trust a cow to avoid my child being too attached to its nurse mother
UMMMMMMMMM yeah now that one it just too cooky,,, stoppin by didnt' forget ya
In antebellum America it was not unusual for the plantation owner's child to be nursed by a household slave -- the "mammy." There's a reference to the concept in the linked article.
The mammy was able to be a wet nurse because she'd just had a child herself... sometimes the half-sibling of the plantation owner's child. If you know what I mean.
With that in our history, it's hard to believe that wet nursing would catch on....
Glad you read my comment, Amanda and made an interesting post out of this trend I read.
Yeah, I think that I would worry about the bond that would develop. It seems like it would confuse the baby. I guess if the wet nurse pumped it would be a bit better. I don't know, that still seems odd to me.
In pre-communist China, wet nurses were employed so that they can make some money to support their families. What this means is that the babies of these wet nurses were deprived of being well fed. So, I do see this as a class issue as well.
It looks like most people would feel a little uncomfortable with a stranger doing the breastfeeding.
Just shows that there really are many diverse people in the world.
The wet nurses in America's and China's history were in terrible positions but here's a bit of trivia for you all: If they were allowed to continue feeding their own babies, and fed their babies AFTER the boss's one, their baby would actually receive richer milk. The BETTER stuff.
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